Hebrew​ vs Greek

Hebrew vs Greek perspective

The western world is definitely a Greek culture. See how our thinking, even expressed in western Christian religions, reflects the Greek influence. So many items under the Greek list represent our religious culture: sacred/secular separation, looking for our happiness in the next life, creeds & doctrine, favorite snippets of texts rather than the whole, etc.Paul said, "For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom,but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness..." (1 Cor. 1:22-23). Jews wanted physical proof and the Greeks wanted intellectual proof. We want one or the other because each is easier than restoring the character of God with which we were created.

For example, sin is to miss the mark. Sin is both wrong behavior and wrong thinking. Interestingly enough, Torah is from a root meaning, to hit the mark. Also, Torah does not mean law, it means teaching or instruction. The Torah is a guide to right action for a people trying to become a unified nation under God, just as the Christian Gospels and epistles are guides to right action for the mature individual. This is not about our thinking (although the subject of our thoughts must also be in line) so much as it is about right being.

The Hebrew Scriptures, as well as the Gospels and epistles, reflect Hebrew thinking. The exception is Jesus' teaching that wrong thinking is sin, just as much as wrong doing is sin (e.g., Matt. 5:27-28).